Success Stories

Below you can read about some of the clients we have helped. The photos are not the actual clients, and their names have been changed to protect their identities.

Hope

When Hope first called our hotline, it was near Christmas, and she had been sleeping in the woods for several nights. All she had with her were a few belongings which she had carefully placed in an old shopping cart. She had been beaten by a family member and was hiding, alone, with nowhere to go for safety or comfort.

Cindy, the advocate who was on call that night, brought Hope to our shelter where she was able to have a hot shower and rest. Soon she was ready to talk about her past and the years of abuse she endured. Hope was 63 and had experienced abuse since childhood. Cindy gave Hope expert counseling and helped her develop a safety plan for her future. Hope came to our weekly support groups and began putting her plan into place.

Within a few weeks, with Cindy’s help, Hope got her social security card and began receiving monthly benefits. She was then able to apply for housing and was placed on the waiting list. In the meantime, Hope and Cindy met several times a week for counseling sessions. They also worked together to gather items for Hope’s future apartment.

When the time came, Cindy helped Hope move into her new apartment. Cindy hung Hope’s curtains and set up her TV, which they picked up from a local thrift store. Hope was at our shelter for nearly three months. Now she has a safe place of her own to call home.

Jordan

Jordan witnessed his father yelling at and hitting his mother from the day he was born. A few months after his 12th birthday, Jordan’s father held his mother at gunpoint and a neighbor, who overheard his mother’s screams, called the police. That night his father was arrested for domestic assault and held in jail for 12 hours.

Jordan and his six younger siblings left home with their mother and came to Women Are Safe’s shelter. Jordan was angry for having to leave the only home he had ever known. He missed his father. He was overwhelmed with anxiety caused from moving to a strange place and having to change schools. He blamed his mother and lashed out at his younger brothers and sisters. Jordan didn’t understand that his mother was a victim of abuse and that he, too, was traumatized by his father’s violent behavior. After all, living with violence was all he had ever known.

Thankfully, we were there to answer that call. Jordan, his mother and his siblings stayed at the Women Are Safe shelter for three months before moving to their new home. During the first few weeks, Jordan bullied his younger sister and even threatened to hurt himself. His mother was overwhelmed and didn’t know how to respond to Jordan’s behavior. She was also coping with her own fears. How could she be a single mom to seven children? How would they be able to start over? What would her husband do if he found out where they were living? Would he make good on the threats he had made to kill her, the children and himself, if she ever tried to leave him? On top of it all, she had no idea how to help her oldest son, Jordan.

Our Youth Advocate was there, as a person Jordan could talk to, and she helped him adjust to his new school. With donations from the community, we were able to provide Jordan and his siblings with all the school supplies they needed. During this process we reached out to many community partners who provided supportive services such as parenting skills and home visiting programs. Our staff learned a great deal as we networked with other experts in the community to fill in the gaps in the services that we had to offer Jordan and his siblings.

Our grant funds were used to support Jordan and his mom through this process. In time, Jordan’s mother came up with safe goals for her family’s future. She got an Order of Protection, with guidance from our Court Advocate. She made a plan that would keep her and the children safe, if her husband attempted to find them. Once she had a safety plan in place, Jordan’s mom was able to turn her attention to the children. We connected her with resources for Jordan, to help him cope with his experiences and the changes he was facing. Jordan is now on the road to a better future without violence.